About Champagne

Champagne-making is the highly refined art of blending base wines into a whole that is greater than the sum of its parts. These component wines come from different grape varieties (the white grape Chardonnay and the red varieties Pinot Noir and Pinot Meunier) and from different villages and vineyards. And because only four or five harvests per decade in this marginal climate northeast of Paris provide the raw materials to make balanced, complete Champagne wines--that is, vintage-designated Champagnes, which must be entirely from the year indicated on the label--most Champagnes also combine juice from two or more vintages.

Blending across vintages is the way Champagne producers are able to maintain the house styles their customers have come to expect. As nonvintage wine accounts for about four-fifths of total Champagne production, it is hardly surprisingly that the reputations of most major houses hinge on the quality and consistency of their non-vintage blends. Not only that, but the better nonvintage Champagnes on the market today are often every bit as satisfying as the typical vintage bottling--and a lot cheaper to boot.

Two districts of Champagne are considered best for high-quality grapes: the Cote des Blancs, whose chalk and limestone soils are ideal for Chardonnay, and the Montagne de Reims, which is ideally situated for growing the red grapes Pinot Noir and Pinot Meunier. The Vallee de la Marne, which stretches in a narrow band across most of the region and is planted to both red and white grapes, is the largest area aside from the Aube district, which lies far to the south, disconnected from the other Champagne vineyards by almost 50 miles and generally producing fruit destined for anonymous blends.

About France

France is the fountainhead of the grape varieties most craved by North American wine drinkers: Cabernet Sauvignon, Merlot, Pinot Noir, Syrah, Chardonnay, and Sauvignon Blanc. In fact, these grapes are widely referred to as "international" varieties because they have been planted and imitated all over the world. Of course, one of the most exciting developments in wine over the past generation has been the growth of intriguing local styles of these varieties, such as Pinot Noir in Oregon and New Zealand, or Syrah in Australia, South Africa, and California. But most cosmopolitan wine-lovers -- and even winemakers -- would agree that French wines are the archetypes.

France enjoys the perfect geographic position for the production of a wide range of fine wines. Its relatively northerly location ensures long hours of daylight during the summer months and an extended growing season, allowing for the slow and steady accumulation of flavor in the grapes. Although the country as a whole enjoys a temperate climate, conditions can vary significantly within a limited land mass: cool and Atlantic-influenced; continental, with very cold winters and hot summers; warm and Mediterranean, with wet winters and dry summers.

Wines of France

France began classifying its best French wine-producing sites more than 200 years ago. Its detailed appellation controlee system, designed in the 1930s, has served as the model for classification systems adopted by other countries in Europe and elsewhere. Appellation d'Origine Controlee (often abbreviated to AOC), means "controlled place name" and is the consumer's assurance of the origin and authenticity of any French wine whose label bears these words.

AOC laws, administered by France's INAO (Institut National des Appellations d'Origine), establish the geographic limits of each appellation, permissable grape varieties and methods of production, minimum alcohol level, and maximum crop level (or yield) per hectare. Just beneath the highest category of appellation controlee is the comparatively tiny category of VDQS (Vins Delimites de Qualite Superieure), wines which may eventually be promoted to AC status and which are most commonly found in the Loire Valley and the Southwest. The third category is Vins de Pays, or "country wines". This latter category gives producers, including some of the more adventurous French wine growers, an escape route from the straitjacket of AC regulation in terms of higher permitted yields and less restrictive geography, a wider range of legal grape varieties, and fewer restrictions as to method of production and minimum age of vines. Finally, at the bottom of the pyramid, there are Vins de Table, or simple "table wines."

And yet, despite France's illustrious wine history and the fact that it is still the world's leading producer of wine, the country is struggling to compete in the international market. Today, France faces fierce competition from New World wine producers. U.S. imports of French wines actually declined, in number ofcases, between the end of 2002 and early 2006 -- this during a period when overall wine consumption in the U.S. grew by more than 50 percent.

Today, the French government is agonizing over how to help French wine producers, who are also facing homegrown challenges such as changing domestic drinking habits and an aggressive anti-alcohol abuse program. Wine producers in some regions of France are coming to view the AC system itself as an obstacle to selling wines to North America and other important export markets. Among the changes being considered are loosening restrictions on what can be planted where and on how wines can be made, and allowing producers in certain areas to indicate the grape variety or varieties on their labels -- rather than simply the place name, which is less meaningful to consumers in many of France's key export markets.

About Chardonnay

Flavor Profile

From lean, minerally and acidic to full, fruity and oaky, depending on region and style

The best Chardonnays in the world continue to arrive from the region where the grape first emerged: the chalk, clay, and limestone vineyards of Burgundy and Chablis. While the origins of the grape were disputed for many years, with some speculating that the grape came all the way from the Middle East, DNA researchers at the University of ~California Davis proved in 1999 that Chardonnay actually developed, most likely, in eastern France, as a cross between a member of the "Pinot" family and an ancient, and nearly extinct variety called Gouais Blanc.

Wine lovers who have come to think of Chardonnay as weighty and thick will find Chablis a revelation. When grown in the cool, clay-and-chalk soils around the sleepy town of Chablis, at the northern reach of Burgundy, Chardonnay is transformed into one of the world's most cerebral and distinctive white wines. With its brisk citrus character, floral lift, and incisive minerality, Chablis is at once sharper and more delicate than white Burgundy from the Cote d'Or nearly 100 miles to the southeast -- and potentially at least as long-lived. And Chablis is about as far removed from fruit and oak-driven New World Chardonnay as a white wine can be.

As recently as fifteen years ago, the American market had an unquenchable thirst for Chardonnay, particularly for examples from California. Today, although Chardonnay is still the most widely planted variety in California in terms of acreage, serious wine aficionados rarely talk about Chardonnays other than those from a handful of specialist producers. Even at the level of the mass market, many consumers have tired of overly alcoholic, over-oaked, and clumsy wines, not to mention neutral, technically correct but soulless examples. Many wine drinkers have moved on to fresher, less oak-influenced white wines such as Sauvignon Blanc. This is a shame, as the trend has turned toward brighter, better-balanced Chardonnays from cooler sites, with crisper fruit aromas, more soil character, and less reliance on new barrels for flavor.

Still, it's a two tier market. A relative handful of producers make wonderfully layered, complex Chardonnays that can easily hold their own against more expensive white Burgundies, at least in their early years in bottle. These wines, which can be richer than dry whites have any right to be, are among the most impressive wines made in California today and continue to be hotly pursued by collectors. The rest of California's Chardonnay producers compete for the attention of consumers who are no longer obsessed with this grape.

But there are now many excellent choices available, many from cooler areas. Lower elevations of Napa Valley have virtually been abandoned as appropriate sites for Chardonnay. Now the best wines come from the Russian River Valley and further west in Sonoma County; Carneros, the Anderson Valley to the north; and the Central Coast, especially the windy western portion of Santa Barbara County. Today, there are fewer blowsy, tropical-fruity Chardonnays with the alcohol levels and flavors of a pina colada and many more wines with fresher stone and citrus fruit elements, mineral notes, and restrained oak spice.

While most California Chardonnays should be consumed within two or three years of their release, the top examples can give pleasure for four to eight years, although it is debatable whether these wines gain more in texture and complexity than they lose in early fruitiness.

Just north of California, Chardonnay is by a wide margin Washington's most popular white variety in terms of vineyard acreage, yet the number of truly concentrated and consistently excellent wines is limited. Some of the most interesting Chardonnays come from the cooler Columbia Gorge viticultural area, which spills over into Oregon: the Celio vineyard in particular is the source of some very fresh wines that often show a juicy nectarine component.

On the other side of the world, the export market for Australian Chardonnay was driven in the 1980s by what is called the Show Reserve style -- attention-getting wines made for competitive tastings, usually marked by lavish oak spice, superripe tropical flavors, thick textures due to high alcohol, and sometimes even a bit of residual sugar to seduce early tasters. These wines can be difficult to take, either at the table or on their own. For better or worse, though, this is the style that defines Australian Chardonnay for many North American wine lovers. Fortunately, many producers have adjusted their wine-making regimens to make fresher, more vibrant, and energetic Chardonnays. The most obvious strategy has been to plant Chardonnay in regions and in microclimates better suited to making elegant wines with real flavor intensity than those with brute strength. Western Australia, particularly the Margaret River region, has emerged as a top growing area for Chardonnay, with superb wines also being produced in Victoria and the Adelaide Hills. Tasmania is showing promise as well.

Even if it is the country's second most important variety in terms of production, Chardonnay in New Zealand is of limited interest to international markets. Few sites appear capable of producing truly distinctive Chardonnay wines, and full crop levels and a high percentage of young vines further limit the grower's ability to transmit soil character into the bottle. Some wineries slap a lot of oak on their Chardonnays, with the result that the wines can be more about wood than about the variety. But fresh, unoaked Chardonnays made in a Sauvignon style have attracted a following in North America, especially where prices are reasonable.